ROLI, a London-based music technology startup known for its Seaboard keyboard, has landed investment from Pharell Williams.
The size of the investment remains undisclosed, but Williams will also be joining the startup as chief creative officer.
Today’s news comes after ROLI closed a $27m Series B last year, preceded by a $3.7m round in 2014.
Williams said: “Music touches all of us, and for a long time I’ve been passionate about finding ways to share the power of music with more people. When I met Roland and ROLI, I immediately felt we were working towards exactly the same goals, and so I’m super excited that we’re kicking off this partnership.”
Roland Lamb, founder of ROLI, also spoke about the news: “Our mission is to empower everyone to create music, and more broadly to empower people as creators. Pharrell is not just an extraordinary musician, he embodies creativity. His ideas will take us in exciting new directions, and we’re thrilled to share our first collaboration — the ‘Happy by Pharrell’ studiopack — today.”
As ROLI’s chief creative officer, Williams will work with Lamb to develop new digitally connected music instruments.
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